Insulators bushings and electrical terminations on outdoor power equipment deteriorate over time due to exposure to moisture, pollution, heat and UV radiation. In hot summers degradation of insulators in transmission lines is accelerated leading to an increase in the incidence of structural damage and reduction in dielectric strength. Presently used methods of detection include visual inspection, image intensification, infrared thermography, electric field distribution measurements and acoustic emission measurement. These techniques are only useful in detecting large defects and require inspection, which involves labour time and cost. Australian patent 2006326931 discloses a method of detecting faults in high voltage power lines. The detector has antenna sensors having a bandwidth of 1 MHz to 3 GHz, positioned directly below each line. The detector units are located on each high voltage power pylon. The processing unit includes a processor and a transmitter for communication with a base station. The processor filters the signals from the sensors and segments the signals to find out the time instant when a partial discharge occurs. The signals are subjected to fractal analysis or a Wigner Ville distribution analysis. The processing can be split between the processors at the pylons and the base station
It is an object of this invention to provide a system for the early detection of faults in distributed power networks that involves lower labour time and reduced site visits.